High energy requirement of vapor compression cooling systems in addition to harmful refrigerants further necessitates the increasing need for more reliable, flexible, environmentally friendly, and cost-efficient cooling systems options. Adsorption cooling technology could be a better option in terms of huge energy saving potential, Carbon emission reduction, flexibility, and waste heat utilization. There are, however, some setbacks that hindered adsorption cooling technology from real mass production and commercialization. This work seeks to study, evaluate and compare the energy requirement and coefficient of performance of solar-powered adsorption cooling system (as an application of renewable energy) in relation to vapor compression system. Adsorbate/adsorbent equilibrium test (using a test rig) was used to predict the performance of thermal driven adsorption cooling system using methanol/activated carbon (as adsorbate/adsorbent pair) in relation to similar data obtained from laboratory vapor compression refrigeration test rig (same mass of refrigerant). For the adsorption cooling system and vapor compression system, the energy requirements were found to be 1913.57 kJ and 8932.02 kJ while the coefficient of performance (COP)s were found to be 0.39 and 1.2 respectively. Presumably, the adsorption cooling system has an energy requirement that could be powered by direct solar thermal heating using a flat plate collector, however, the COP is relatively lower indicating lower cooling capacity, and hence takes a longer period of time to overcome the same cooling load as vapor compression system. It is recommended among other things that research should focus on developing better adsorbate/adsorbent pairs for an increased adsorption/desorption time.